Chapter 2
Finally, Damian rushed over to me.
Lily was going to be saved.
I felt the tension in my chest finally ease.
Back then, his sweet talk had been enough to make me turn down every marriage alliance the other families put in front of me.
I had always known he married me for the Corleone Family's power, but Damian swore to my face that he would spend his life loving me and giving me a home.
Then he changed, and with my father's backing, his business kept climbing, and he started spending his nights out and stopped coming home.
My father told me more than once to leave him, and every time I let it go, as long as he still loved our daughter.
All that patience had finally paid off.
I said, "Lily is still under there."
"Elaine, I'm sorry," he said, his voice icy. "Connor's trapped. I have to save him first."
His words froze me to the core.
"What about our daughter?"
I held down the anger and the humiliation burning through me.
There was a note of begging in my voice.
As long as he could save my daughter.
"Elaine, you're The Don's daughter," he said.
"Someone will come for you. Victoria is over there with nobody but Connor. I have to help them first. Wait here and I'll be right back."
With that, Damian grabbed Victoria's hand and turned away.
"Damian!" I cried after him.
"Daddy..." Lily's voice was barely a whisper.
The crowd kept pushing past, and their figures got smaller, and I went on calling for my husband while Lily lay in the rubble begging her father to come get her.
Our voices were too small, and the noise swallowed them every time.
The police came, and so did the Corleone men, and they pulled Lily and me out of the wreckage.
"Lily, my baby," I sobbed, clutching her tight.
I held her close, tears streaming down my face.
In my arms, Lily gripped my clothes, her eyes slowly losing focus.
"Mommy, is Daddy coming to save us?"
"He is."
My voice shook while I wiped the blood off her cheek, because no mother would let anything that filthy stay on a face like hers.
Maybe it was the warmth of my arms that settled her, because she pressed her face into my chest and closed her eyes.
Time stopped meaning anything inside the ruins.
I had no idea how long had passed.
It could have been a minute or a full day.
By the time they loaded the two of us into the ambulance, Lily had stopped breathing.
The morgue sat one floor below ground in the hospital.
The hallway ran on forever, the lights were a hard white, and the air was freezing.
A painting hung on the wall, depicting an open ocean with the sun setting into it.
Whoever picked it had a strange taste, because a place like that had no use for an ocean, and all it needed was a door that opened so a person could lie down and be wheeled into the crematory.
I stared at that painting and pictured Lily in there alone, with nobody to hold on to.
Had she been frightened?
Had she cried?
I didn't dare think about it.
But I couldn't stop myself.
I called Damian seventeen times.
Every one of them went straight to voicemail.
At 3:17 a.m., one of them finally went through.
Victoria picked up. "Elaine?"
She sounded wide awake, and nothing about her voice suggested she had been sleeping.
"Connor has been having nightmares since it happened. Damian is with him.
"Was there something you needed?"
I said, "Put Damian on the phone."
"He's busy. I can pass along a message."
"Victoria." I worked to keep my voice at a steady level. "Tell Damian I'm at the hospital and he needs to come see me right now."
"But Connor—" Victoria started.
"Or," I cut her off.
"Damian can go see his black market doctor mistress instead," I said, my voice cold and sharp.
"How do you know?" Victoria's voice trembled with fear.
"I know a lot more than you think," I said, my tone icy.
"Victoria, who do you think you are? You're a whore who only knows money.
"If he doesn't show up, you can go ahead and rot in the street.
"And don't forget who I am. I'm a Corleone."
I hung up.